The chapters by Cyrino and Barcellos (Chapter 9), Kalotay and Panibratov (Chapter 10), Ramamurti (Chapter 11) and Williamson and Raman (Chapter 12) review cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity by multinationals from Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRICs), attempting to understand the motivations underlying such M&A activity, and then assessing whether such M&A helps these BRIC multinationals create and enhance sustainable competitive advantage in global markets. The chapters note that cross-border M&A activity by BRIC firms has been growing in importance over the past decade or more, accounting for an increasing portion of overseas foreign direct investment (OFDI) from BRIC nations, as well as accounting for an increasing portion of global M&A activity, reaching a peak in 2008, with larger deals becoming more prevalent and extending to a variety of industries, including natural-resource and mature commodity-type industries, as well as more technology intensive industries, business-to-business as well as consumer industries, and financial services.

An important precursor to M&A activity is national government policy, with government policies and support of cross-border acquisitions playing a strong catalyst role. Williamson and Raman, for example, note the important of Chinese Government initiatives, such as zou chuqu, the ‘going global’ slogan from 2000, as well as a later emphasis on ‘going-out and bringing-in’. Given the Chinese government’s significant control of the Chinese economy, and its influence through state-owned and state-controlled enterprises, such a strong role is to be expected. Beyond macro-economic growth goals, government industrial policy initiatives for specific industries, such as to support natural resources-based growth in Russia, solar and alternative energy industries in China and aerospace in Brazil, all encourage the use of cross-border M&A as one of many modes of internationalisation in supporting such industry-specific goals. Further, given the growing size of M&A transactions, government financial support, through subsidised interest loans, and earmarked funds to promote international M&A are further catalysts for the growing number and amount of total international M&A from BRICs.